SEASON 1 The Seinfeld Chronicles (Pilot) The very first episode.
Jerry is ecstatic that a woman he met on the road is coming to
stay with him in New York. George and Kramer weigh in on how
Jerry should best approach the situation. Male-Unbonding Episode
2 Jerry tries to “break up” with his obnoxious childhood friend
but his pathetic weeping leads Jerry to give him another chance.
Elaine helps Jerry come up with excuses to avoid him. The Stake
Out Episode 3 Jerry meets an attractive woman at a party but by
the time she leaves, he has only learned where she works. Jerry
stakes out the mystery woman’s office with George so that he can
“casually” bump into her. The Robbery Episode 4 Jerry is robbed
after Kramer fails to close the apartment door. Elaine talks
Jerry into looking at a fabulous apartment in the hopes that she
can then have Jerry’s place. Things are further complicated when
George decides he wants the new place too. The Stock Tip Episode
5 After George receives a stock tip
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Nothing? Seinfeld is a show about everything! It's about the
appeal of the posse and coma etiquette. It's about importing and
exporting. It's about sneaking a peek, and seeing the baby. It's
about this, that, and the other. TV Guide ranked Seinfeld the
best TV series of all time. It has become the master of its
syndication domain. Its most devoted fans can quote each episode
chapter and verse; their absorption of each scene's minutiae
anything but a trivial pursuit. With such fervent devotion to the
show, and demand for its DVD release, series creators Jerry
Seinfeld and Larry David could have easily just OK'd a bare-s
set containing nothing but the episodes. Not that there would
have been anything wrong with that, but instead, the creative
team came together to create extensive and encyclopedic features
that make this four-disc set buy-worthy. The candid and revealing
audio commentaries and interviews, deleted scenes and original
episode promos, and optional "Notes About Nothing" pop-ups are as
irresistible as a Drake's coffee cake.
It's always fun and instructive to return to the humble
beginnings of a series that became a pop culture benchmark. Here
are Kramer's first not-so-grand entrance, Jerry's first
contemptuous "Hello, Newman," and Elaine's first "Get Out!"
shove. But what is most revelatory about these episodes from the
first two seasons is what Jason Alexander, during his commentary
for the episode "The Revenge," calls a "sweet quality" that
somehow redeems these characters' more base instincts. Consider
the scene in which Jerry gives a freshly unemployed George some
career guidance, or Jerry and Elaine's palpably affectionate
banter throughout. The "Inside Look" episode intros offer
fascinating ins into this singular show that subverted
sitcom convention with such now-classic episodes as "The Chinese
Restaurant," in which Jerry, George, and Elaine wait in vain for
a table. We learn, for example, why movie tough guy Lawrence
Tierney, who guest starred in "The Jacket," never reprised his
role as Elaine's her. All of this, of course, is yadda yadda
yadda to Seinfeld fans, whose patience for the show's DVD debut
has been amply rewarded. As Elaine screams in the third-season
episode, "The Subway," "It's not nothing, it's something!"
--Donald Liebenson